Republic of Rif (1983: Doomsday)
The Republic of Rif is a Moroccan successor state located along the Rif region of northern Morocco. History Before the Doomsday The Rif has been inhabited by the Rifains since prehistoric times. As early as the 11th century BC, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians began to establish trading posts on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, and founded cities such as Tetouan, Melilla and, in 5th century BC, Tangier. After the Third Punic War, Carthage was supplanted by Rome, and the Rif became part of the province of Mauretania. When the latter was divided during the rule of Emperor Claudius, Tangier became the capital of Mauretania Tingitana. In the 5th century AD, the region was raided by the Vandals, and Roman rule came to an end. The region remained under Vandal control until the 6th century AD when the Byzantines reconquered parts of it. In 710, Salih I ibn Mansur founded the Kingdom of Nekor in the Rif and converted most Berbers to Islam. Arabs then established more cities. By the 15th century, many Spanish Moors were exiled from Spain and most of them lived in the Rif, bringing their culture, Andalusian music, and even establishing Chefchaouen. Since then, the Rif had suffered a lot of battles between Morocco, and . In 1415, Portugal invaded Ceuta, and in 1490 Spain invaded Melilla. There was period of peace after, but war between Spain and Morocco arose again in 1859 in Tetouan where Morocco was defeated. The Spanish-Moroccan conflicts didn't end. In the 20th century, under the leadership of Abd el-Krim El-Khattabi, the Moroccan guerrilla leader, The Riffian Berbers struggled against Spanish rule and aimed to free Morocco from French and Spanish colonization. Abd el-Krim later established the Republic of the Rif in 1921 which lasted until 1926, reinstating the Spanish protectorate. The region was returned to Morocco after its independence in 1956. During the reign of Hassan II, stage known as the Years of Lead (in Morocco) Rif people was too repressed while sidelined. Because it is known the existence of certain political organizations that demanded from a development for the area until the separation of the territory of Morocco. In 1958-1959 a revolt broke out in the Rif was an uprising in the North African Rif region choked with aerial bombing in the region with napalm, white phosphorous and cluster bombs carried out by an embryonic Moroccan army, led by French officers and the head of which (and overseeing operations) was the then Crown Prince Moulay Hassan (the future Hassan II). The crackdown left a balance of several thousand dead Rif. Doomsday and After Morocco did not receive any nuclear impact on September 26, but was impacted by the e.p.s and radiological contamination in the following days. This pollution forced the hasty evacuation of cities like Tangier, Tetouan and Chefchaouen, and also from Spanish Ceuta. refugees soon collapsed care system and social assistance. Soon hunger riots broke out and also xenophobic incidents between Moroccan refugees and Hispanic-Portuguese refugees, and both groups turn against Native Rif. At the end of year 1984 the Moroccan military presence had disappeared. The surviving the Spanish government as soon as he was obliged to decide the evacuation of the Peninsula found that the situation of the nation was vulnerable in the event of an aggressive attitude of Morocco particularly dangerous was the situation in Melilla. The solution came with the riots from November 1983 to shake the whole northern Morocco, as in the case of the Rif region take the form of separatist revolt. The Spanish military decide to support the independence movement Rif, for the purpose of creating a buffer state that isolates Melilla from Morocco, and sent the general Hipolito Férnandez-Palacios to contact with insurgent groups. They decided to not occupy the region for reasons including radioactive contamination as well as by the difficulty of controlling a mountainous territory. The Spanish army decided on military assistance to the Rif, with the sum of its forces quickly gained control over most of the Rif, including the city of Nador, near Melilla became the de facto capital of the nascent state. Birth of the Second Republic Nador a congress convened in late 1984 proclaimed the independence of the republic of the Rif and endowed a constitution that proclaimed a secular state with capital in Nador and organized into cantons (Kabylia). Expansion and Foreign Relations In the 1980s, the Republic was shaken by infighting among various factions, including Beni Urriaghel separatists and defenders of integration with Morocco. Only in the mid 90s, after its territory was pacified, could the Rifenians expand to the west recovering Al-Hoceima and Chefchaouen and to east conquering the free city of Oudja until then under a local warlord. In 2005, the Republic participated in a multi-national task force to wrest control of the Straits of Gibraltar from the . Thanks to their participation the Republic cultivated good relations with other European and South American nations, which led to an increase in trade with the outside world. The culmination of these good relations happened when Rif became a founding member of the . Rif forces fought against Sicily during the First Sicily War - the War of the Alboran Sea - and more recently in the Second Sicily War, in which they participated in the Invasion of Tunisia, which was given to them, Kabylie, and Spain afterwards as a mandate. Demography The Rif Republic cannot be considered an overcrowded country to the standards of the contemporary world. Before 1983 the area had a population difficult to estimate but in any case exceeding four million. Today the population is around one quarter of what it was decades ago, are estimated 1,046,000 inhabitants but this figure could be higher since there is a large irregular immigration. Perhaps close to 1,160,000. Of this population are only about 675,000 Riff, the rest a large percentage are immigrants, speak the official figures of 371,200, (but as mentioned above could be more). Immigrants from many nations arrived for a variety of reasons: Spanish, Portuguese and French fleeing the nuclear bombing of radioactivity, Moroccans and Algerians who fled the turmoil in their countries that fell in recent times and lately fugitives from the Sicilian raids. By number of Moroccan 129,850 are the most numerous, followed by 74,200 Algerians, the Spanish added 55,650 not counting the Melillans (formally citizens of PdO but residents in the country). The Portuguese added 37,100, and 29,680 French and there is a rest to be divided among 26,170 Europeans of other nationalities (Italians, Greeks, etc. ..) and 18,550 Muslims in other Mediterranean countries (Egyptians, Libyans, Turks and Tunisians). Economy The economy is primarily agricultural, though the cattle farming has suffered greatly as a result of radiation and today is almost insignificant, due to a lack of places to export to, though it is still important to the locals. Rif is seen as a narco-state because of its plantations of cannabis whose derivatives are used in the pharmaceutical industry as substitutes for opiates. Not far from Nador, in Axara and Uixán iron mines are operated, and keep a small steel industry in Nador and Oudja. International Relations Rif is a member of the and the . See also Category:African countries (1983: Doomsday) Category:Morocco Category:Morocco (1983: Doomsday)) Category:Ceuta Category:Melilla